Paradise unpaved

Tariq Malik

HUNTINGTON BEACH - It is serenity meeting with the big city, and some

environmentalists want to shape its future.

A subcommittee of the city’s environmental board is seeking funds to

restore the wetlands habitat and trees at the Donald G. Shipley Nature

Center. They are also working to establish a comprehensive vision for the

area.

In a March 7 meeting, subcommittee members discussed the importance of

the Shipley center, which includes about 2.8 acres of wetlands and

tree-laden land nestled within Central Park under the restoration

microscope. The entire center comprises about 18 acres between Golden

West and Edwards streets, near Central Park Drive.

“We do get a steady flow of people that are just looking to get away

from the hubbub of the city,” said Park Naturalist Dave Winkler, who has

manned Shipley’s visitors’ center for about 25 years and sits on the

subcommittee. “In all relativity, it is a little part of Huntington

Beach, but I think people enjoy that at its center they feel like they’ve

stepped out of an urban environment.”

An estimated 30,000 people visit the center each year, including many

international visitors seeking glimpses of rare birds like the tricolored

blackbird, spotted dove or Alan’s hummingbird, he added.

Environmental board member and Subcommittee Chairwoman Jean Nagy said

the group’s main purpose is to define the goals for the Shipley Nature

Center. In the future, she added, a volunteer support organization like a

“Friends of the Center”, may also be possible.

Last month, the committee put together an application for about

$441,000 in grant money from the Southern California Wetlands Recovery

Project, a coalition of state, federal, scientific and community

officials with a passion for preserving wetlands environments. It

includes five coastal counties spanning from Santa Barbara to San Diego.

Joan Hartmann, the project’s public outreach director, said the

Shipley Nature Center grant application survived the first round of

regional applicants on March 7, though more work is needed before

approval.

A final decision is expected sometime in May, committee officials

added.

If ultimately awarded, the grant money would fund a modified version

of the restoration plan backed by developer Robert Mayer Corp., which

spent three years and $150,000 on the plan.

Steve Bone, Mayer Corp.’s president and CEO, has said the plans were

originally developed to restore wetlands elsewhere in exchange for a

portion of the Waterfront Hilton expansion, and that they were made

available to the city as it moved forward with the restoration effort.